Chapter 7: The Dream

　　Late into the night, the Crown Prince set down the Chen Ji, lay down in his clothes, and soon fell fast asleep.

　　Outside the tent, Luo Huangyi had been sitting still for a long while. Beneath the glow of the luminous pearl, she watched as the prince's small figure lay down. Behind her, the little girl—overcome with drowsiness—closed her eyes and slumped to the side.

　　Seeing this, Luo Huangyi reached out, lifted her disciple into her arms, and carried her into the small tent beside her own. Then she sat back down, closed her eyes, and resumed her cultivation in stillness.

　　All around lay stillness. The chirping of insects rose and fell in turn—melodious and soothing to the ear.

　　Inside the tent, a thread of blackness slipped noiselessly down from the Crown Prince's right arm, wriggling like an earthworm, creeping slowly onward. Before long, his entire right palm had turned an inky black. His steady, even breathing gradually grew quicker and more strained.

　　Chen Li's eyes snapped open. A wall of dark clouds rushed toward his face. In an instant, everything around him was engulfed in a vast, impenetrable haze. His footing suddenly gave way, and he plunged downward.

　　Panic seized the Crown Prince. He kicked and flailed his arms—but there was nothing to grasp, no foothold to be found in the formless clouds. Then, in his dread, he saw the clouds slowly coalesce into an unfamiliar face—a face crisscrossed with scars, eyes glaring wide, lips moving in a low murmur. But the words were indistinct, reaching him only in fragments: "Li... Crown Prince of Chen... bel—... now, for... betrayed..."

　　The strange face's voice was low and deep. No matter how hard the Crown Prince tried, he could not make out the words—yet his body never ceased falling. He noticed, however, that he remained constantly facing the strange face, as if he had not moved at all...

　　After the strange face finished muttering its piece, it opened its mouth and blew a great breath toward the boy. Then it closed its eyes and fell silent. But the prince saw, from its mouth and nose, an army of huge black ants slowly crawling out. The moment he laid eyes on the ants, he felt as if ten thousand of them were burrowing into his flesh, gnawing and stinging everywhere. In desperation, he opened his mouth and let out a loud cry.

　　At once, the prince's cry rang through the campsite. Chen Jiang rushed over quickly—only to find that Luo Huangyi had already entered the tent.

　　Chen Jiang saw the Crown Prince drenched in sweat, his eyes still tightly shut, limbs thrashing on the ground—still trapped in his nightmare. Luo Huangyi grabbed the boy by the scruff, gave him a firm slap on the back, and with a cry of "Wa!", the prince woke.

　　Luo Huangyi laid her hand on the prince's forehead for a moment, then placed it over his chest. After a pause, Chen Jiang saw her give a faint shake of her head—and he let out a breath of relief.

　　The Crown Prince had by now come to his senses, still shaken. He sat up on the ground and examined himself, finding everything intact. He realized that all he had just experienced had taken place within a dream.

　　"What happened? A nightmare?" asked Luo Huangyi.

　　"Aunt Hui, I dreamed that I kept falling—and in the midst of it, I saw a strange face that spoke in human words, but I couldn't make out what it said. Then the face was covered with black ants crawling all over it, and I felt as if they were biting me all over my body. I couldn't help it—I cried out."

　　Having said this, the Crown Prince grew a little embarrassed. He raised his right hand and rubbed the back of his head.

　　Luo Huangyi's gaze swept over him. She seized the prince's arm, rolled up his sleeve—and there, near his elbow, she found a faint ring of black marks encircling the boy's small arm. She rubbed it with her fingertip—and found that it was not dirt.

　　Chen Jiang leaned in to look as well. The faint black marks seemed to have grown into the skin itself—a most peculiar sight.

　　Luo Huangyi asked quickly, "Do you feel any other discomfort?"

　　The Crown Prince had also noticed the strange mark on his right arm, and a surge of anxiety rose in him. He took a careful moment to sense his own body—and aside from a slight thirst, he felt nothing else. So he shook his head.

　　Luo Huangyi released his arm, sat down, and placed both her hands against the prince's back and chest. She channeled her arcane power to examine him thoroughly. After a long while, however, she found nothing amiss. She offered a few words of reassurance to the prince, then stepped outside the tent with Chen Jiang.

　　Only then did Chen Jiang speak: "Please come with me, my lady."

　　The two of them flew to the edge of the pool. The night was already pitch-dark, and the leaves overhead blocked the moonlight, so the small pool looked like a bottomless black chasm.

　　To them, however, this was no obstacle. Cultivators who had reached a certain realm could see in the dark, fast from food, walk on air, and fly across the earth—all the ordinary barriers of the mortal world were as nothing to them.

　　Chen Jiang, as the leader of the Eight Guards, had already reached the late Dan Completion stage of the Golden Core realm ten years ago. He cultivated the Mountain-Shattering Art, a technique passed down through the Chen family. Luo Huangyi—Luo Huiyan—had long since given birth to her Nascent Soul and had entered the mid-Infant Formation stage of the Nascent Soul realm. Her art, known as the Huan Yan Jue, had been passed down from the "Huan Yan" bestowed companion of the founding ancestors.

　　This art could only be cultivated by women, and was passed down solely from master to disciple. Thus, when the Crown Prince's bestowed companion, Little Shan, was accepted as Luo Huangyi's close disciple, she received the transmission and had now been practicing the Huan Yan Jue for three years.

　　Once the Huan Yan Jue reached the seventh layer, the practitioner could sense the traces of vital energy flow through touch. All cultivators in the world built their foundation upon vital energy, which filled the heavens and the earth—flowing without form or shadow.

　　Every movement of a cultivator, whether in attacking an enemy or defending the body, used their own arcane power as a guide to move vital energy, thereby altering the flow of vital energy within a certain area.

　　Luo Huiyan—Luo Huangyi—had cultivated the Huan Yan Jue to a profound level. She was already able to trace the movements of vital energy that had occurred within the past three hours.

　　Chen Jiang stood by and saw Luo Huangyi extend her hand before her, knowing that she was sensing. So he waited quietly beside her for the result.

　　After a few breaths, Luo Huangyi withdrew her hand and shook her head gently.

　　Less than three hours had passed since the Crown Prince had been lifted from the pool by her. Chen Jiang knew, therefore, that no human or beast had been lurking around the pool—otherwise, with himself and the other Eight Guards within a distance that could be covered in an instant, they would have sensed something at the time.

　　Looking again at the pool, aside from the water that overflowed and slowly seeped outward through the cracks in the broken bluestones, there was nothing unusual.

　　Chen Jiang crouched down and drew a short cord from his belt. With a flick of his wrist, the soft cord stiffened into a rigid rod, humming as it cut through the air.

　　The pool was clear to the bottom, and the water plants at its edges swayed gently with the current. Chen Jiang pressed the rod against the pool's edge and slowly swept it forward.

　　Before long, the rod had traced a full circle around the pool, stirring up the floating water plants. Chen Jiang tossed the rod aside, planted his feet firmly, and let out a soft shout—then thrust both palms outward. The water in the pool parted in the middle, rising like two sheets of silk and falling into the woods on either side.

　　In an instant, the pool was drained completely dry. In that brief moment, the two had already scanned both sides of the pool—and found nothing unusual.

　　Chen Jiang rose and released his power, allowing the stream from the cliff above to slowly flow back into the pool.

　　Finding nothing, the two returned to the camp. Inside the prince's tent, Little Shan had been roused by the commotion and poked her small head through the tent flap. Seeing her, the Crown Prince waved his hand impatiently before she could even speak: "It's nothing, nothing. Just a nightmare."

　　Little Shan did not press further. She let out a low chuckle, then brought out the water jar from behind her and asked, "Would His Highness care for a drink?"

　　Feeling parched, the prince reached out his hand and said, "I am a bit thirsty. You came just in time. Give it here."

　　"Yes, Your Highness."

　　Serving the Crown Prince was, by duty, the role of the bestowed companion. But as the prince was never short of attendants, and given his long-running rivalry with Little Shan, he rarely bothered to let her serve him. His daily needs were still looked after by the maidservants of the prince's household.

　　Little Shan thus enjoyed her leisure and devoted herself wholeheartedly to training under her master. After entering the Qi Refining realm, her path of cultivation had been remarkably smooth. At only ten years of age, she was already nearing the completion of Qi Refining. She was not only deeply cherished by her master but also earned praise from the queen and the Eight Guards whenever they saw her.

　　Among cultivators, Qi Refining was the gateway stage—and the very foundation of the entire cultivation path. At this stage, one had not only to draw vital energy into the body but also to refine it, separating the pure from the impure, in preparation for the future stages of Core Formation, Nascent Soul Formation, and Divine Attainment.

　　The first two of these three stages—Core Formation and Nascent Soul Formation—were both built upon vital energy. The power of all subsequent techniques and skills depended first and foremost on the depth and abundance of a cultivator's arcane power. Thus, though Qi Refining was the most elementary stage on the path of cultivation, in terms of its importance, it could be called the foremost of all cultivation stages.

　　Upon reaching the Divine Attainment realm, the cultivation of vital energy reached its pinnacle. Beyond that lay the Return to Emptiness realm, where one sought to glimpse the mysteries of heaven and earth. Within the Return to Emptiness realm, one continued to perceive the great Dao of the universe, and finally entered the Grand Achievement realm.

　　"Grand Achievement" meant transcending this world—in the ancient saying, "riding the wind home." To put it another way, it meant attaining immortality on the spot. It also meant that cultivators of the Grand Achievement realm were rarely glimpsed by mortals in this world; their deeds had long since become legends.

　　In this world, the Qi Refining realm was divided into twelve levels, with every four levels forming one stage: the Foundation Stage, the Nurturing Qi Stage, and the Perfection Stage.

　　The final minor stage of Perfection was also known as the Foundation Establishment stage.

　　Since being accepted as Luo Huangyi's close disciple, Little Shan had reached the Foundation Establishment stage in just three short years—she was now at the eleventh level of Qi Refining.

　　To have crossed the Foundation Stage and the Nurturing Qi Stage in merely three years since beginning cultivation was an astonishing speed by any measure.

　　According to current theories in the cultivation world, the speed of cultivation was primarily influenced by several factors: the cultivator's natural aptitude, the cultivation art practiced, and the cultivator's personal effort.

　　Among these, natural aptitude was the most crucial. Aptitude referred to the degree of harmony between a cultivator's innate constitution and elemental affinity with vital energy. The Qi Refining stage was essentially a process of drawing vital energy into the body—the higher the degree of harmony, the smoother the process.

　　The cultivation art, meanwhile, was the guarantee of this process. In plain terms, the art was simply the method by which vital energy was drawn in; a correct method would accelerate the process.

　　Of course, other factors also had some influence—but none as significant as aptitude and the cultivation art.

　　Little Shan's background had never been spoken of. It was at the coming-of-age ceremony that Crown Prince Chen Li had first laid eyes on this clever, mischievous little girl. After the elders had arranged for them to be together, the two children had each grown in their own way—but on the path of cultivation, it was always this little girl who stood out above the rest.